By Rafe Calder
Start with three men or ten. Alessandria, in Piedmont, is where Giuseppe Borsalino set up as a hat maker in 1857. Treccani, the Italian encyclopaedia, gives one account of how many people he started with in its biographical dictionary, and another in its older general encyclopaedia. They are the same publisher.
The man
Treccani’s biographical dictionary says Giuseppe Borsalino was born on 15 September 1834 at Pecetto di Valenza and died in Alessandria on 1 April 1900. It says he left home at thirteen, worked about four years as a hatter’s apprentice in Alessandria, then worked in France, including in Paris for a firm making fine beaver hats. He returned to Alessandria in 1857. With his brother Lazzaro, it says, he set up a small fulling workshop in via Schiavina with ten workers, making about ten hats a day. The Treccani general encyclopaedia says instead that he took over a very small felt-hat factory with a shop attached, and began with only three workers.
The day
The municipality of Alessandria gives 4 April as the date of the first hat, and adds “according to the chronicles”. The museum’s website gives 4 April 1857 as the start of the workshop. The biographical dictionary gives the year only. We report the date as the town’s and the museum’s own account.
What it is made of
The Alessandria municipality says early luxury hats were made of beaver fur, by hand, with techniques learned in Paris, and that quality hats came to need felt made only from rabbit fur, which led to rabbit breeding across the local area. Treccani’s biographical dictionary says the pelts were usually rabbit, trimmed with scissors and cut with a knife, and that every phase of the work was then manual. It lists a cauldron, a bow-shaped tool for mixing the fur and a table for fulling. It says Giuseppe began mechanising in the 1880s.
Growth, as Treccani counts it
The biographical dictionary gives a table. In 1857, ten workers and about ten hats a day. In 1861, 60 workers and 120 hats. In 1876, 180 workers and 410 hats. About 1896, 1,000 workers and 1,360 hats. It puts total output in 1900 at about 750,000 pieces, of which about 450,000 were exported. The Alessandria municipality gives its own points on the curve: 130 employees and 300 hats a day in 1871, and 2,800 pieces a day in 1901, with 60 per cent of production exported in the early 1900s. The older Treccani entry says the firm employed over 1,200 people at his death.
The peak
The Alessandria municipality puts about two million hats a year in the 1920s and about 800,000 a year in the mid-1950s.
The name on the hat
The Alessandria municipality calls Borsalino “il cappello per antonomasia”, the hat par excellence, and lists Verdi, Churchill, Chaplin and Fellini among its wearers. It says a 1970 film titled Borsalino was followed by a sequel in 1973. The museum’s website speaks of a “Borsalino style”. For a buyer the point is simple. The name is a firm’s name that has become a word for a kind of hat. We found no source that sets rules for who may use the word, and we make no claim about that.
The museum
The museum’s website says it has more than 2,000 hats in eight narrative areas, that its grand opening was on Tuesday 4 April 2023, and that the Foundation was set up in 2020.
Dates in order
- 15 September 1834: Giuseppe Borsalino born, according to Treccani and the municipality.
- 1857: the return to Alessandria and the start of the firm, according to every source we read.
- 4 April 1857: the first hat, according to the municipality; the start of the workshop, according to the museum.
- 1880s: mechanisation begins, according to Treccani.
- 1900: Giuseppe dies; about 750,000 pieces made that year, according to Treccani.
- 1905: the firm becomes a joint-stock company, according to the older Treccani entry.
- 2020: the Foundation is set up, according to the museum.
- 4 April 2023: the museum opens, according to the museum.
Side by side
The sources agree on the founder, the town, the year and the rabbit fur. They differ on the first workforce: Treccani’s biographical dictionary says ten and its older general entry says three. The museum is close to the company’s own story.
What kind of sources these are
Two entries from Treccani; the municipality of Alessandria’s information page; and the museum’s website, which is the company’s foundation speaking for itself. We read no archive and no factory visit report.
Questions a buyer would ask
Is the hat fur felt or wool felt, and is the fur rabbit? Where was it made? Is the name on the label the firm’s, or only a style described as a “borsalino”? A seller can answer all three. We name no model and no size.
What we left out
We left out prices, the company’s later ownership and finances, a mountaineering trip the municipality attributes to Giuseppe in 1894 that no other source repeats, the welfare funds in Treccani’s entry, and the film plots.
Quick answers
When was Borsalino founded? According to Treccani, Giuseppe Borsalino returned to Alessandria in 1857 and set up the workshop. The city of Alessandria dates the first hat to 4 April.
What are Borsalino felt hats made from? According to the municipality of Alessandria, quality hats needed felt made only from rabbit fur. Treccani says the pelts were usually rabbit.
Is Borsalino a brand or a type of hat? The municipality calls it “the hat par excellence”, and the museum’s website speaks of a “Borsalino style”. We found no source on who may use the word.
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Roam first. Shop later.